The prisoner’s dilemma

The prisoner’s dilemma is originally some dude’s theory about how to play a game. Honesty I never did understand that bit of rubbish in the economics class 😛

Anyhow I thought I might like to use the theory’s title for this blogpost, because not all of us are prisoners in a jail, trying to betray each other to get out first. Although the last part of that sentence expresses exactly how I feel at times, these times being when I enter a shopping mall.

Seriously.
Is there any other place where your senses are bombarded and you panic because you can’t find the exit? Or is it just me and my female shopping-alert brain that convulses in a “Please! No more!!” fit of shopping anxiety?
I feel like a prisoner, and just can’t seem to grasp all the possible roads to take down through that damned aisle! Should I buy a Guerlain lipstick in a golden case? Or should I grab the newest fragrance from this or that brand? What to choose? There is so many opportunities, where to start, where to end, I want something perfect! More times than not I just end up with… nothing.

HELP!!!

‘Cause there is no Perfect Solution.
Even then, it is a fact that sellers who attempt – and succeed – in narrowing down the customer’s choice has a bright future. Life is just too complex these days to manage the ever growing list of choices we must make every single day. And I’m not only talking about shopping. We have a vast land of choices: from which coffee-to-go, to which school we put our kids into. Some of the choices require more research than others – all the while our society becomes a boiling kettle filled with “information overload”. We have so much information gathered on the internet, and more than half of it is actually produced the past 2-3 years alone. Crazy right? BIG data systems is the future guys. No shit.

The giant, hulking shopping malls are a leftover dinosaur from a time when “information overload” was a foreign concept and the list of choices for a avarage person per day were limited to “Brown or blue trousers” or “black or blue tie” – you do the math. It left a vacuum in society where exotic shopping malls with billions of different goods were king. I think one can say with certainty that shopping malls are only useful if you know exactly what you want and can’t get the stuff any other place.

Endless floors with shops and shops… A leftover industrial dinosaur?

Today and in the future consumers will reward smart shops that narrow down the line of choices to the bare necessities. It’s not only happening – it’s happening fast! The “Apple” generation craves simplicity, user friendliness. If you can’t give them that – then you can KISS your revenue goodbye! Not only is a small stocked shop easier to handle, but it’s also cheaper in tied up inventory capital. I’m not kidding. I don’t even want to contemplate the costs of big malls’ inventories.

I would love to tell you that all that jazz about Scandinavian design has the grab of it. But sadly no. It doesn’t. However, limiting the choices is all about having a great product, because otherwise your shop will come out sorely lacking. This puts pressure on all the stupid cheap Chinese goods – and believe me, they don’t do anyone any good. Neither the factory workers who’s slaving +10 hours a day to make them, the environment or us. But try telling 70% of the population that – all they seem to care about is getting the latest offer of 3 for 2’s price! Sigh. I know I can’t change people’s minds and what they think give value in life – but I’m a bit saddened at the thought that the majority of the Danish population spend so many money on craptastic things that is thrown out within a year anyway.

That might be one of the reasons why Apple-products are so popular (and so expensive). Great design combined with a steep price ensures that the gadgets goes from you to your kids and the great design means that you enjoy using your gadget every time you grab it in your pocket.

Simple design is already happening. From business solutions

To personal portfolio: This might be a tad too simple, even for me – but nevertheless I find it a cool way to present yourself:

And… it isn’t really a surprise… They still got the hang of it in Apple…

The future is here now – and the mobile revolution is already going on. The more you succeed in making Complex into something Simple yet deep – the more customers you will have. Hello, shopping malls: Are you listening?!